Where's the Groundhog?
by Boolia
Summary: It's Groundhog's Day but there's one major problem, the groundhog is nowhere to be seen! Join Kowalski, Private, Rico, and Skipper as they investigate, and try to crack this mystery. First full POM story in Skipper's POV!
1. Part 1

Where's the Groundhog?

Part One

"_Come on Kowalski_!" Private encouraged him. It was February 2nd, Groundhog's Day, the day that the groundhog appears, and we see if winter is almost done or not.

We were all standing around, patently waiting for Kowalski to finish toying with the television wires so we could all watch the groundhog ceremony. I was getting impatient.

"Come on Kowalski!" I said. "At this rate, the ceremony will be done by the time you finish." Kowalski rolled away from the wiring on his stateboard he was laying on to look at me. He pulled down his shades.

"Skipper," he told me. "Be patient if you please. Science requires allot of hard work and concentration."

"Well work harder!" I urged. "Come on, we're burning broad daylight over her." Kowalski gave an angry grunt, as he went back to work, wiring the TV.

"You must have patience Skipper." Private informed me. "Kowalski is only doing his best. I mean surly, you can know at least he's trying his hardest."

_"Yeah, yeah_!" Rico nodded. I sighed.

"Okay Kowalski." I said. "I know you're trying you best and that all that counts. I mean if you absolutely positively fail this, I completely understand. The effort counts on this one, and if you are at least you're trying your very hardest, that's completely okay with me. Nobody's perfect, not even a science geek like you Kowal…"

"There, I think I got it." Kowalski interrupted. He got up from under the TV and removed his shades.

_"Yay_!" Young Private clapped with joy. "I hope it works."

We all got in front of the TV screen as Kowalski hit the remote. The screen turned on, but there was nothing except a fuzzy scene.

"_Blast it!"_ Kowalski said. "Still snowy."

"Not as snowy as it is outside." Private remarked. Kowalski looked at the TV. He pondered, his flipper scratching his chin. "It's just packed with snow out there and so cold." The little penguin shivered. "I hope the groundhog doesn't see his shadow, that way we'll all know it'll warm up because Spring will be on its way!"

"I wonder." Kowalski wondered. He looked at the TV. "Aha! I see the problem." He went to the back to work again. I rolled my eyes.

Suddenly, Marlene came bursting in.

"It's _horrible!_" She cried. "Oh it's just plain _horrible_!" She ran to Private and Rico and put her paws on their sholdiers, wiggling them while she shouted. "It's downright and plain…" She put her paw under her chin, and looked scared as she squeaked her next word. "_Horrible_."

"Calm down Marlene." I told the sea otter. "What's so horrible? The zoo isn't planning to close again, is it?"

"No."

"Then what is it?"

"_Eureka!_" Kowalski cried out. We looked at him. He went over to the remote, and pressed the button. "This time I know it'll work. It has to."

We looked at the screen. The ceremony was taking place but not a single groundhog could be seen.

"I don't get it." Private observed, looking worried. "Where's the groundhog at?"

"I don't know." Kowalski replied. "He should've been out by now. It _is_ groundhog's day. But, the question is, where is he?"

"He's missing." Marlene answered. We all looked at her like she was crazy.

_"Huh_?" We all wanted to know.

"There will be no Groundhog's Day this year." Private waddled up to her.

"What ever do you mean Marlene?" He wanted to know.

"There will be no Groundhog's Day, because…. he's missing."


	2. Part 2

Part 2

We all gasped.

_"Missing_?" Private asked. "What do you mean he's missing?"

"Okay earlier today when I was out having my morning stroll, I saw today's headline in the _New York Times_, someone has kidnapped the groundhog!" We all gasped again.

"But, but we can't have Groundhog's Day without the Groundhog." Private said. "That's like a birthday party without the guest of honor, Christmas without Santa, snow, or gifts, Halloween without candy, Easter without Easter eggs, we can't have that. It won't be the same without him. We have to do something."

"You're right Private!" Marlene told him. "You _have _to do something! Groundhog's Day without the Groundhog just won't be the same without him now, would it?"

"No." Marlene looked at me then with an encouraging smile. I smiled back.

"Marlene," I told her. "You always know the right penguins for the job. Of course we'll help!"

"Oh thank you guys!" Marlene cheered. "The children and everybody in New York will love you for this." I smiled again.

"No problem Marlene. Anything for the kiddies, we'll be happy to do." I looked at my men. "Men, line up!" My men did just that. When they were all lined up, I paced back and forth, explaining the situation before us.

"Okay troop." I told them. "We got a serious problem on our flippers. The groundhog is no where to be seen. Now we got to find him before its too late. We got…" I turned to Kowalski. "Kowalski! How mush time do we have?" Kowalski looked at his watch, looked at me, and saluted.

"We have 10 hours before the sun sets to find him." I paced again.

"Okay 10 hours that gives us…"I scratched my head. "Let's see, 10 hours, so that gives us about…"

"That's 10 times six Skipper." Kowalski said. "Which leaves us with 600 minutes."

_"Perfect_! So we have 600 minutes to…"

"559 minutes now Skipper."

"We have 559 minutes to find our furry friend, now, any ideas where he might be?" My men thought this over, shook their heads, and shrugged. I slapped my face with my flipper.

"Okay here's an idea, let's have a look _outside _our habitat, shell we?" My friends nodded in agreement, then one by one, jumped out of our home.

"Skipper," Kowalski said to me. "Just to tell you, we only have 558 minutes now."

"_Egad!_" I realized. Then I shouted to my crew, "Come on men, we're burning daylight here; let's _move it!"_ Kowalski climbed up the ladder and looked at his watch again.

"Oops, now it's 557 minutes." I sneered at him.

_"Kowalski_!" He looked at me, and then snapped back to business.

"Oh, oh _right_!" He left the habitat. I was about to leave when Marlene toughed me.

"Skipper," She began. "You are doing New York and all of America a huge favor. Take care, will you?"

_"Marlene, Marlene_." I told her. "This is me and my boys we're talking about, we're always careful, you know that!"

_"Right_!" She released me. "You solve this mystery, I'll prepare for the children; _good luck_!" She left through the back door. I waited a while, and then went up after my friends.


	3. Part 3

Part 3

_"Skipper_?" Private asked me while we were outside. We were all looking for clues.

"Speak Private." I told him.

"Suppose we failed in finding the groundhog." He said. "What will happen then?" I looked at him.

"_Private_!" I scolded. "How _dare_ you even think that! We'll find the groundhog all right and bring whoever kidnapped him to justice!"

"Well yeah, but what _if _we don't? What if the day ends and there's still no groundhog?"

"Then Private, we'll make billions of humans unhappy and children will be upset. Now if you know me, do I like making kids unhappy?"

"No."

"Well there you go! Remember Private, when there's a will, there's a way!"

"_Yes sir_!" The young penguin saluted.

"Good now what are we going to do?"

"We're going to find the groundhog no matter what it takes!"

"_Bingo!_ Now continue looking for that groundhog!"

_"Yes sir!"_ With that, Privite waddled away. I continued my part of the search.

_"Hmmm_." I pondered. "We need a suspect.

"_Ooh_ you want a suspect?" I heard someone say. We all turned to see the lemurs coming towards us. It was Ring Tail who spoke. He ran to me, bounced, and raised his hand.

_"Ooh ooh_!" He cried. "_Pick me, pick me!_ I have no clue what a suspect is, but _pick me!"_

_"I want to be a suspect_!" Mort said bouncing excitedly. "I _like_ being a suspect!"

"Mort, your majesty." Maurice told them. "How can you two be suspects if you don't know what they are?"

"I don't care!' Mort said. He looked at me "I _want _to be a suspect!"

"Oh brother." Maurice slapped his forehead. "What did I do to go through this?"

"_Penguin!_" Ring Tail ordered me. "I command you to make me a suspect_! Now,_ _now_, _NOW!_" I smiled as I scratched my chin.

_"Really?"_ I said to them, raising my eyebrows. "So you're willing to be suspects of the crime?"

"_Yes, yes_!" Ring Tail begged. Mort nodded excitedly. "A thousand times_, yes_! Make us suspects!" I leaned way into him.

"Okay… where were you on the night of February First?" Julian looked confused.

"_Huh?"_ He then pushed Mort forewords.

"I think he wants to be talking to you Mort." He told the tiniest lemur.

_"Yay!"_ The lemur shouted excitedly. I smiled at him. "I get to be a suspect!" I did what I did for Ring Tail. I leaned into his face.

"Mort…What did you do on the night of February First?" This time, Mort looked puzzled.

"_Huh_?"

"What did you do on February First?" I repeated.

"_What?"_ I sighed.

"What did you do last night?"

"I don't know."

"Oh come on Mort, you _do_ to know. What did you do yesterday before you went to bed?"

"I don't know." I was beginning to get impatient.

_"Mort!_" Kowalski stopped me.

"Now, now Skipper." He said. "I'll handle this like a man." He began shouting at Mort.

_"WHERE DID YOU HIDE HIM_?!" Kowalski barked. Mort looked scared.

_"I don't know_."

_"OH COME ON! DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME, I KNOW YOU DID IT! NOW TELL ME, WHERE DID YOU HIDE THE GROUNDHOG_?!" Mort broke out crying.

"_I don't know_!" He sobbed. _"Stop asking me these hard questions!"_ Heran to his habitat crying. We looked at the lemurs who then smiled nervously at us, and then ran after their tiny friend. We looked at Kowalski.

"I don't think what you did to Mort was really wise Kowalski." Private told him. Rico shook his head in agreement.

"Well it's not them!" Kowalski said. "Let's carry on, shell we?" I sighed and slapped my forehead as we all fallowed the prancing science nerd.

We asked every animal we knew. Roy the Rhino, Burt the elephant, Phil (aided by Mason). Mason, Max, Roger, Bada and Bing the gorillas, Fred, Joey the Kangaroo, and The Rat King. Unfortunately, none of them knew anything on where the groundhog was or his whereabouts. We had no idea, no more suspects, and we were running out of time. We went to go get some Fudgsicles from outside of the zoo walls.

"I don't get it." I said as we waddled back with our frozen desserts. "We searched all day and still no sign of the groundhog." Rico shook his head sadly.

"Maybe he wasn't kidnapped at all." Private suggested. "Maybe he's sick or took a little vacation."

"On the most important day of his life?" Kowalski asked. "I don't think so." He looked at his watch and sighed. "Only an hour left till sunset."

"It's hopeless!" Private mourned. "We'll never find him now." We all agreed sadly.

All of a sudden, we were snatched up in bags! We struggled as we were separated from our fudgsicles, but it was no use, we were all being taken away.


	4. Part 4

Part 4

_"Uhhhhhh_!" I moaned, rubbing my sore head. "Anybody know where we are?"

"I think we're trapped in a cage Skipper." Kowalski analyzed.

_"What_?!" I asked. I stood up and waddled over to my friends. "How can you be sure?" He looked at the metal bars in front of us; I looked too.

"Well judging by the metal bars surrounding us, and we can't escape…"

"_We're trapped like rats_!" Private shouted, looking freighted.

"Calm down Private." I told my comrade. "We can get out of here."

"But how Skipper?"

"Easy, we just…" I kicked the bars with my foot. Suddenly, I felt great pain. I picked up my hurt foot, and jumped in that spot.

"_OWWW!"_ I cried. I put my foot back down. "_Geez,_ maybe getting out will be harder then I thought." Suddenly we heard a voce.

"Is someone there?" It wanted to know. We all backed up in the cage, fearing it was the kidnapper who snatched us. "_Hello_, who is it?" The creature came closer. We feared even more. It came into the light to reveal itself. We were then releaved, it was the groundhog!

"Can I help you?" It asked.

"You're that groundhog who is supposed to be at the groundhog ceremony and tell us if winter has ended or not, correct?" Kowalski asked. The groundhog nodded.

"_Correct."_ He replied "Indeed I am"

"Then what are you doing here for?" Private wanted to know. The groundhog sighed and looked out of the cage. We looked out too.

"I was captured." He told us. "I was on my way to the ceremony when I was snatched up. I was then locked up in this cage, and I have been here ever since." Private gasped.

"That's _awful_! Who would've done this?"

"An evil, insane crazed dolphin."

"An evil, insane crazed dolphin you say?" The groundhog nodded.

"By his lobster henchmen." Suddenly, I realized something. "_Oh my gosh_!" I cried out. "_Crazed dolphin_?! I know who kidnapped us!" I narrowed my eyes. "My arch nemesis, Dr…" Suddenly we all heard a crazed dolphin laugh. We turned around and saw him. He rode to us on his flying platform.

_"Blowhole_!" I finished, looking serious. "Get us out Blowhole! Can't you see we got to do stuff?"

"_Yeah!_" Private added. "Can't you see you're making people unhappy by capturing the groundhog? Don't you know what today is?" Blowhole cackled to himself.

"_Of course_ I know what today is!" He answered. "It's not no good of a holiday, Groundhog's Day."

"You're making thousands of people unhappy you know." He laughed sincerely again.

"I know, isn't it great? Those backstabbing humans get to now witness what I went though years back!" Private looked confused.

"What you mean?"

"Well, years ago when I was at the zoo when I was younger…"

"I sense a back-story coming on." Kowalski told us.

_"You bet Kawolske_!" Kowalski looked mad.

"It's pronounced Kowal_ski_!" He said. My nemesis didn't look amuse.

"Whatever, anyways, long ago when I was a young dolphin at the zoo; I was admired and adored by fans everywhere. I would perform tricks with them while mostly the mothers, would take great snapshots of me with their cameras. I was happy to see them, and they loved seeing me. Until that fateful day came, February 2nd."

"On that day _no one_ came to see me and it made me sad. I wondered why, and when I looked on the dolphin screen in my show pool, you know what I saw?"

"Thousands of New Yorkers gathered around the groundhog?" Private guessed.

"_Bingo!_ Well first I saw a commercial for fudgsicles, but _then _I saw them! I couldn't believe it, that furry little beast stole my spotlight! I figured it was no big deal, they'll see me tomorrow. _However_, the following year on the same day, it happened again! The year after that the same, and the year after that! I couldn't take it anymore, I _had _to get my revenge on the little show stealer."

"But it's only once a year." Private informed him. "You can handle that can't you? Think of all the children's faces when they see the groundhog, they _love _seeing him!" Blowhole pounded the table with his fin.

"When they should love seeing _me!_" He snapped. Private hid behind us. "I wanted to be seen _everyday_! Not see my audience see that stupid furry no good groundhog! So that's why I kidnapped him, to see all the New Yorkers feel what I felt years ago." He did his shill, insane, evil laugh.

"Clever plan." I told him. "However there's one major flaw in your planning." He stopped laughing and hovered over to me.

"There is?" He wanted to know. "Tell me!"

"Alright Blowhole. Suit yourself." I turned to Rico. "Rico, you know what to do!"

"_Uh- huh_!" Rico nodded. He regurgitated a bomb that was about to explode. _"Ka-boom, ka-boom!" _

"Stand back." I told everyone. "This could get messy." Rico threw the bomb with all his might outside near Blowhole. We all stood back, and covered our heads for the upcoming explosion.

_"Ah shrimp_!" Blowhole cursed. The bomb made a huge explosion, setting us free. We were all covered in ashes, and so was Dr. Blowhole. We all waddled out of there.

_"See ya Blowhole_!" I waved him goodbye.

"_So long_!" Private said to him. Rico just stuck out his tongue then waddled after us.

_"Curses_!" He mumbled. "_Foiled Again_!" He turned to us. "Mark my words penguins, I will have my revenge. _Victory will be mine_!" He laughed insanely until he coughed because of the black smoke.

"Well boys," I told my companions. "Another mission successfully completed!" We all high flipped each other. The groundhog approached us.

"I must thank you guys for rescuing me." He said. "This day would have been ruined if you guys haven't shown up with your bravery. You are simply remarkable flightless birds."

"Don't mention it." I told him. "We're always happy to help, anytime and anywhere." He looked at the sun behind the trees.

"Well I better go!" He exclaimed. "Got to go before the sun completely sets, then I won't see anything." He turned to leave. "Bye, and thanks again." We all waved at his dissent.

_"Bye!"_ Private called. "I hope you don't see your shadow!" He then turned to me. "Well Skipper, we made billions of New Yorkers proud."

_"Yeah_." I agreed with him. "We made billions of people proud, which in return, makes me proud."

Back at the habitat we invited almost the whole zoo, to watch the groundhog ceremony with us on our TV.

"Well, well ladies and gentlemen." The TV reporter said on scene. There was a bunch of New Yorkers at the site, all waiting for the groundhog. "And kids of all ages. It's that time of year again, Groundhogs Day! Remember, if the groundhog sees his shadow six more weeks of winter, and if he does see his shadow, Spring is on its way!" More cheers on the screen. The reporter turned to the mount.

"Okay," He said. "Let's see our fate!" The groundhog poked his head out, walked outside, and saw…his shadow! We all cheered.

_"Spring is on the way folks, Spring is on its way!"_

"Spring is on its way Skipper." Private told me. "Are you happy?" I smiled at him.

"Yes I am Private!" I told him. "_Yes I am!"_ I looked at the setting sun outside.

Spring was on its way, we rescued the groundhog and made billions of people happy, but most importantly, another mission has been solved! It was a good day after all.


End file.
